Nearly Dying Again

THREE NIGHTS AGO IN XIAO VILLAGE

Just when Yu Xuelan's body was about to hit the ground, Wu Zhitian promptly reached out his hands and caught her before she collapsed on the hard surface.

Her breath was shallow and her heartbeat was slow. Seeing as how her fingertips were also extremely cold, she would fit the perfect description of a dead woman. What made it even worse was the girl's already pale face was even paler, possibly the same shade as the lucid mood.

Wu Zhitian widened his eyes in dismay, and the tip of his fingers trembled. Yet, no one could tell, since the darkness of the gloomy night covered his facial expression.

"What happened?" Long Wen exclaimed as Wu Zhitian placed his palm on her bloodied forehead, which emitted light around his hand.

"Sect Master Wu, what's wrong with her?" Wu Ming inquired.

His stone expression faltered as he withdrew his palm. Carrying her in his arms, he immediately turned his back around, heading for the gates.

"I'm taking her to the Feather Temple," he said at a slightly faster pace, although still calm, and he began walking towards the second gate.

Long Wen crinkled her brow as she noticed his unusual behaviour. It was the first time in years after Yu Xuelan's death that she saw him caring about someone other than the people of his sect.

"Stop there," Long Wen demanded as she pierced the ground with Huo Yan which cast a spiritual barrier that surrounded them, preventing them from leaving the area.

Wu Zhitian paused his tracks and turned around at an angle, though his body was mainly faced the other way.

"You can't take her to your temple," Long Wen retorted.

"Hmph, we've travelled over two li to get here. We are not returning without getting anything back. Although we teleported halfway," Wu Ming muttered under his breath.

Long Rei spoke up, "I am very sorry to inform Master Wu but Miss Lin is a slave, and when a slave's master dies, it is expected for the slave to be buried along with their master's tomb so they can continue serving them even after death."

Wu Ming gasped, "That is true."

"Hand over the slave. I will kill her right here," Long Wen reached out one of her arms, gesturing him to abandon the unconscious girl.

There was a deafening silence that filled the empty gaps of the conversation as Long Wen continued to wave her arm, telling him to hand over the girl. Wu Zhitian stared at Long Wen with a hollow gaze that could not be fathomed. The three cultivators peered at the white-haired boy in expectance to which he finally opened his mouth to speak.

"No."

Veins of swelling anger protruded over Long Wen's forehead and fist, yelling in frustration. "Then you leave me with no choice!"

Before Long Wen pulled her sabre out, Wu Zhitian spoke in a calming manner:

"This girl belongs to ShenMing Wu."

Just as they thought they had been shocked enough, everyone looked at the Sect Master in confusion, including Wu Ming.

"She does?" Wu Ming questioned, scratching his head in puzzlement.

"Stop blabbering nonsense," Long Wen sneered.

"I came here tonight to collect this girl because the chief of this village had given me her in exchange for the spirit stones he stole." He explained, "I rejected his offer at first because I was just going to take put him in the prison chambers but I changed my mind."

"Oh, that's right! That means this woman here is of ShenMing property! Now release the barrier!" Wu Ming scolded with confidence, even though he had no clue what his leader was talking about.

"Where is the evidence?" Long Wen demanded.

"You destroyed it. It was in the main building, but you destroyed half of it when you were trying to capture the Counter ranked demon. So the documents of the exchange have been destroyed."

Long Wen flinched back as she loosened the grip on the sabre.

"Would that be considered as tampering with evidence?" Wu Zhitian asked, which caused Long Wen to stay silent.

"Now if you will excuse us, we will take our leave," he bowed as his turquoise eyes glowed, piercing through the darkness of the night.

Their legs trembled with the throbbing ground as the concrete cracked from the force. Long Wen narrowed her eyes as her head became dizzy and numb from the abnormal waves. A heavy gust of wind pushed everything away from the white-clothed figures.

Long Rei, the disciple from Zheng Long, got knocked by the windstorm, forcing his body to slam against the main building's wall as shock spiralled down his spine.

Long Wen gritted his teeth as she turned around to see where the disciple has flown off to, only to see that the trees were uprooted and roof tiles of the manor were being ripped from their base and whirled amongst the blast of wind, with the entire residence shaking from the quake.

Long Wen pierced Huo Yan deeper into the ground to keep her toes on the surface and to prevent her from being pushed away. She raised her arms to block the dirt that flew in her face as she squinted her eyes in search of the figures of the ShenMing Wu cultivators.

To her disappointment, their silhouettes were nowhere to be found.

"Those wind bastards!" She muttered under her breath. "Why does he want the girl so desperately?"

After a while, the windstorm calmed down and Long Rei stood up, bleeding from the head and arms as he limped his way back to where Long Wen stood still. His head was still throbbing from the shock.

"Are you alright Long Rei?"

The boy nodded, yet his breathing was unsteady, desperately gasping for air.

Long Wen reached for her pockets, searching every inch of her robe. She noticed something was missing and her eyes narrowed as she clenched her jaw.

"It's gone."

"What's gone?"

"That note. It's gone!" Her eyes widened from anger and her nose crinkled with frustration.

Meanwhile, the two cultivators were flying above the air on their sword. To be specific, all three of them were on a Qi sword created by Wu Zhitian since Wu Ming had not learnt sword flying yet.

"Master Wu, is this paper important?" Wu Ming inquired with curiosity as he examined the half-burned note, holding it up at different angles to the sky.

Wu Zhitian nodded.

"Do you think she really has something to do with Snow Flo-"

"Wu Ming."

"Sorry."